Tag Archives: Lift Bridge

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Buzzards Bay Bridge Two Views—Working with a Wide Angle.

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The former New Haven Railroad lift bridge over the Cape Cod Canal is an imposing structure that dwarfs everything around it.

I exposed these views using my FujiFilm XT1 with 12mm Zeiss Touit flat field super-wide angle lens.

To expose the second image, I extended the XT1’s rear display angling it upward and then looked down to it while holding the camera as close to the water as I dared in order to obtain a more dramatic view.

Among the benefits of the XT1’s display system is the built-in level, which I find very helpful when trying to keep the bridge level with the water.

Using the level with the rear display makes it much easier to make these close to the water photos. Back in the old days, I just had to guess!

Tracking the Light Posts Daily.

 

 

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Metro-North’s Westport Connecticut Drawbridge, November 2002.

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Metro-North Bridge 44.32.

Officially this known as Metro-North Bridge 44.32, this spans Saugatuck River an includes consists of a pair of parallel Scherzer rolling bascule lifts that date to about 1904–1905. I featured this bridge with a photo by Patrick Yough in my 2007 book Railroad Bridges published by Voyageur Press.
Officially known as Metro-North Bridge 44.32, this spans Saugatuck River and includes a pair of parallel Scherzer rolling bascule lifts built circa 1904–1905. I featured this bridge with a photo by Patrick Yough in my 2007 book Railroad Bridges published by Voyageur Press.

I made this unusual view of Metro-North’s former New Haven Railroad Westport Drawbridge using my Contax G2 rangefinder with a 16mm Hologon lens. When kept perfectly level this lens allows for non-converging perspective of vertical lines, however off-level it produces extreme vertical convergence.

The antique electrification on this movable span was an ideal subject to explore this lens’s peculiar perspective. My vantage point was from a public walkway easily accessed from the westbound platform MN’s Westport Station. I’d first photographed this drawbridge in November 1985 using my dad’s old Rollei Model T with black & white film. Bright sunlight and low fair-weather clouds add depth and contrast.

Working with Westinghouse, New Haven Railroad had pioneered high-voltage alternating current overhead electrification for mainline use in the early years of the 20th century.

 

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